I thought I was just going to do light amount of work, but I was wrong. This class literally made me work the most. More than CS M51A. It was because of all the lengthy essay, giant group project, and really really dumb exams. About Weltman, he teached really dull. His voice made actually a lot of people sleep through his class. Even if you snored really loudly at the back of the class, Weltman would not be able to hear. This class sucks, just another excess amount of writing class.

Honestly i liked this class a lot :). I went lecture and learned a lot about the present issues like overpopulation, environment, laws, history etc. I enjoyed the lecture taught by professor Weltman. It's even more convient because he post lecture online. This class give you knowledge in different field like history, war, environments, ethical knowledge, laws.... etc. Many different fields crambled in one course

The class itself is pretty good, there are a lot of writing things but not that bad. The only thing I'd complain abt is, it was the WALL STREET guys and/or politicians made this world miserable, not our nerdy software engineers. Why do engineering students need to take an ethics class, even if ethics is necessary, why not let these future businessmen do?

This is for ENGR 183EW as well.

I enjoyed the course. People who don't like learning (even if it's history and background of various engineering fields) will not like 183EW. They will just do something else during lecture or go on their computers. Weltman will actually explain and go a little more in depth about the slides he puts up, rather than just reading it. Towards the end, only about 20 students were on time at 8AM for the course. Many just signed in late or signed in for their friends.

The exams were very straight-forward. Just write about ethics based on the slides and what you know on top of your head for the entire exam session. Easy A if you do all the work. The essays and group essay took more time than expected, but at the end, you should get an A if you are a native speaker/writer. The best part of the course is obtaining a considerable amount of knowledge about the group research topic.

You can also look up Gershon Weltman for more reviews, as this one page seems to be lacking.

Professor Weltman is a pretty cool guy. He credits himself as one of the founders of MMORPGs, so that in and of itself is pretty baller.

The grade breakdown of the class is like:

5% - participation/attendance (participation in discussion section, attendance in class via a sign up sheet)

24% - 2 papers (6+ pages), 1 on Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons relating to a Californian issue from a list of issues you pick from and another on an ethical case study from a list you choose from (12% each). These are graded by your TAs, so hopefully your TA isn't a hard grader, though they all seem to be.

24% - team research paper, topic is picked from a list given on day 1 of class. Be sure to get rid of slackers/dgafers from your group asap or else it hurts EVERYONE.

5% - team research paper oral presentation, pretty fun, probably graded easily by your TA.

16% - midterm, write fast because you only have 2 hours to finish 10 short answer/essay questions. The grading is super easy though (more or less how much you complete of the test is = to your grade).

26% - final, same as the midterm, just 12 questions instead of 10 and 3 hours to do it instead of 10.

Professor Browne does 2 case study lectures before the first midterm, so be sure to go to those if you want to know the answers to some of the midterm questions. He is also a bit more animated than Professor Weltman and reminds me of Penguin from Batman Returns.

Overall a pretty easy "A" if you do well on your 2 papers in your discussion (ask your TA for help since you are given a chance to revise your initial turn in of the paper), don't have a group full of slackers for your group project, and can write fast on the midterm/final.

Prof. Weltman is very nice and teaches well, giving nicely organized lectures with powerpoint slides available for download. The class (ENGR 183) is not too demanding, although a lot of writing is required. Overall, I like the professor and the class.

Class was alright. I found some of the topics interesting so not too boring overall, but lectures are all powerpoints. Tests were all open everything with generous time limits, so it was easy to find what you needed in the book as you took it. There are two essays which are both pretty long, but they're not graded too harshly and aren't that difficult to write.

Gershon Weltman and Donald Browne "co-teach" this class during the summer. Lecture is interminable sometimes, but lucky me, I got to watch it on 1.5x speed!
Lecture is for ethics (case studies, formal ethical theory, industry specifics, etc.), discussion is for writing (how-to, assignment details, peer reviews, style guides, etc.). Prof uses slides which are great for referencing and studying during exam season. Two major essays, one on the tragedy of the commons and one on an ethical case study (I chose the I85 bridge collapse). Pretty easy to swing an A IMO if you study and attend discussion/TA meetings to improve your paper before submission.

The contents of this class were super interesting, but I feel like it wasn't worth spending a whole quarter on the subject. The writing portion was mildly annoying since we had to submit either a draft or a paper every 2-3 weeks. My TA, Ryan, was super nice and helpful on reviewing our papers, and the professor also gave great lectures. Overall, I would recommend taking this class with this professor, given that engineering writing is a degree requirement.

I’m very glad that this class is being phased out and replaced with technical writing classes for each department, because it was a complete waste of time. Lectures were made mandatory for the first time this quarter via pop quizzes every two weeks or so. The syllabus claimed these only accounted for 5% of the final grade, but this was never explicitly communicated and we were all left guessing how heavily we would be penalised for attendance. I’m not sure how the grading ended up working out, but in the interest of your time I suggest just taking the L on the 5% and not showing up to lecture ever.
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The midterm and final exams were extremely easy, as they were take-home open-everything and consisted of 50-70 multiple choice, true/false, and matching questions on Canvas that were ripped straight from the lecture material. I erroneously bought the textbook when it was not required, which ended up being a blessing in disguise, as the answers were sometimes word-for-word written in the text. I would like to take a moment and acknowledge the contributions CTRL+F did to my stress level entering the midterm and final.
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I think the main selling point were the essays, which were fairly BS-able. There was significant flexibility in what was permissible in the two individual papers. The first was a report about a technological advancement and the second as a post-mortem study of some engineering disaster from the perspective of some ethical framework. Definitely ask your TA for feedback - they will appreciate you wanting to perfect the essay to their liking and be more inclined to grant you a higher grade. The final project was a group report selected from a pre-determined list of topics. It consisted of a final presentation (30-40 min) and a written report (at least 40 pages). The time and page restrictions may appear terrifying, but remember that this is work split between 5-6 people. One person only has to write the length of an essay and speak for five minutes.
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Definitely pick a good TA, too. I’ve heard some TAs make their students stay the entire there hour duration of discussion. My TA, Oindrila, always finished her spiel within 40 minutes, and then required 20-30 minutes of discussion with our groups about the final report. After that we were free to leave. I was usually out within 70-90 minutes.
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Final verdict: useless. Take the writing class offered by your department.